What Pokémon would be best for large-scale meat production?

[Red Knight]

I was looking into the ingredients used in pet food as research for my journey fic. Meat, in one form or another, is a common ingredient in pet foods as a source of protein and important nutrients, and I suspect it would be similarly common in Pokémon food. Personally, I think it likely that non-Pokémon insects exist - even the smallest Pokémon are around 10cm/4" tall, which is significantly larger than many insects, so insects would be free to occupy many of the same niches they do in our world - and they could very well be used for that purpose. I also think non-Pokémon fish might be able to maintain a niche by virtue of reproducing in larger numbers than they can be eaten in. But if you don't grant that, or if you think there's something about Pokémon meat that sets it apart from the meat of non-Pokémon animals (which I also think is likely), then Pokémon meat would almost certainly be a component of some Pokémon feeds. Oh, yeah, I guess there's also the fact that humans would likely eat meat, too, but that's not what got me down this line of thinking.

So let's set aside all ethical concerns for the moment and ask the question: what species of Pokémon are best for large-scale meat production?

The obvious answer is Magikarp. You'd barely even need to breed them, since they're already so abundant, but if you did, you'd get livestock that are easy to contain, probably not that hard to feed, decently large (with a listed height of 0.9m/2'11", though how the Pokédex measures height is notoriously enigmatic and inconsistent) and probably pretty meaty, not particularly ornery (until they evolve, but there are almost definitely ways to suppress evolution, even on a large scale), and, most importantly, reproduce very quickly. Their Eggs only take 5 Egg cycles (a number of steps that varies by generation) to hatch, the least of any Pokémon species even to this day (tied with Terapagos, for some reason). For context, the most common amount of time it takes for Eggs to hatch is 20 Egg cycles. No matter what length of time under what conditions you decide an Egg cycle represents, Magikarp can churn out Eggs that hatch very quickly, which implies that they can lay more Eggs in a shorter amount of time.

But what about those can't or won't eat Magikarp? There are some that are obvious because they parallel real-world animals raised in part for their meat, like Tauros and Miltank, the Swinub and Lechonk families, and so on. Additionally, some Pokémon are explicitly stated to be consumed by humans, which are helpfully listed on Bulbapedia here: Pokémon_predation#Humans_eating_Pokémon. (I would like to highlight, however, that Basculin, for some bizarre reason, take a whopping 40 Egg cycles to hatch, so they may reproduce too slowly to be a viable livestock. However, Red-Striped Basculin's Scarlet entry claims that "This Pokémon is also full of vitality and can multiply rapidly before anyone notices," so who knows. Maybe they usually lay multiple Eggs at a time in the wild, which compensates for their long incubation period. For that matter, I'd assume that Magikarp also have clutches of multiple Eggs.)

However, I found that the most common meat in dog food is chicken. However, the only chicken Pokémon is the Torchic family, and I don't know how useful they'd be as domestic livestock. Chickens are valuable for their eggs as well as their meat; however, in the Pokémon world, just about everything lays eggs, including Pokémon that produce other useful byproducts, like wool from Mareep or Wooloo or milk from Miltank or Skiddo, so Torchic wouldn't be special in that regard. Torchic are likely already being bred and raised for the purpose of being given to new Trainers, but I don't know whether that would be an incentive to raise more for food, or an incentive to not raise them for food, if not for cultural reasons (like why dog or cat meat is taboo in the West) then to avoid conflicts of interest with the Pokémon League. Perhaps Psyduck would be a suitable fowl? They're large, can't really fly away, probably mostly eat fish and aquatic vegetation, and docile as long as you keep their headaches under control.

I'm tired and not thinking as straight as I'd like right now, so I'll leave it here for now, but what do you all think?

 

[Viridian Beedrill]

The ethical questions are exactly why I still haven't tackled this part of the worldbuilding in my fics.

In terms of a suitable food fowl, maybe the Unfezant line could be on the literal table? People do eat pheasants in real life. Being a regional bird, the line is pretty common, and since they are Normal/Flying Types, there would be relatively few elemental hazards for farmers to deal with.

Veluza seems like it would be a food staple, given that they literally shed meat. And the process doesn't kill or particularly hurt them, so a school of Veluza could supply food throughout their entire natural lifespan, rather than being slaughtered. The downside would be how fast and aggressive they are. One would probably need special equipment to harvest the fillets safely.

 

[ninazrdl]

The obvious answer is Magikarp. You'd barely even need to breed them, since they're already so abundant, but if you did, you'd get livestock that are easy to contain, probably not that hard to feed, decently large (with a listed height of 0.9m/2'11", though how the Pokédex measures height is notoriously enigmatic and inconsistent) and probably pretty meaty,

Magikarps are NOT meaty, there are barely anything edible, as stated in one of the earlier anime episodes.

Actually I find it's a very interesting topic.
Here are some possibilities, beside the official Slowpoke tails, of course:
1. The popular ones in real life. Miltank, for example. You can kill them for meat if you don't want their milk.
Pidgey, Pincurchin, they are just pigeons and sea urchins. If we eat them in reality, I don't see why not. Arrokuda looks delicious. Inkays should be eaten before they evolve, it's safer.
Eevees, they are easily bred and tame as rabbits. I can see Eevee lovers protesting against Eevee meat already, but if you don't care about it, why not? Just like how the real butchers don't care, right?
2. The exotic ones in real life. Rattata, for example. In reality, some people eat guinea pigs, but most people in the world don't. Rattata are basically rats, they breed quick and it is possible to mass farm them, though I imagine not everyone would want to try it.
The same applies to snake pokemons, dog pokemons, horse pokemons, and many others. Actually, water pokemons are breedable on land! So you can breed Wailmers on land, no need for Taiji-ing.
In SV we know that there is likely to have a pokemon version of China. So "people eating Zubats, causing pandemic" "Unova people protesting against foreigners eating Purugly" somehow makes sense. Puruglies gain a lot of meat after evolution, by the way.
3. The high end ones. Imagine that. Free-ranged Farfetchds roaming in a negi farm, look for their own negi, and one day they will be eaten with their negi. Just like the Iberian pigs in real life.

 

[Red Knight]

Very good points, though I would like to debate a couple of @ninazrdl's points.

Magikarps are NOT meaty, there are barely anything edible, as stated in one of the earlier anime episodes.

I assume you're talking about the scene in EP016 "Pokémon Shipwreck" where Misty says that Magikarp are "just scales and bones?" That doesn't seem to stop them from being a staple food source for wild Pokémon (with Pidgeotto and Pidgeot being specifically highlighted). There must be something there worth salvaging, otherwise most Pokémon wouldn't bother eating them even if they were easy prey. And I can easily imagine domestic Magikarp being bred specifically to be meatier. (Also, I personally take anything that's only stated as fact in the Indigo League anime with a grain of salt, since that part of the anime was especially lax about logical and canonical consistency.)

Eevees, they are easily bred and tame as rabbits.

Are they easily bred, though? Eevee Eggs actually take a pretty long time to hatch (35 cycles), and I have a harder time imagining them having larger clutch sizes than I do Magikarp or Basculin. They're also consistently depicted as rare; the first time they were available as wild encounters was in DPP's Trophy Garden, and the first time they were found in a place that could actually be considered wild was Kalos Route 10 in XY. They've definitely become more common in later games as they've ascended to secondary mascot status, but even then they rarely have more than a 5% encounter rate in the places they're found. I'm also not entirely sure how docile they are, though they probably aren't that bad; Eevee has a pretty typical base friendship of 70 (Gens 2-7) or 50 (present) (both on a scale from 0 to 255), and at least in some appearances (SwSh and SV) even wild Eevee are generally friendly towards humans. Plus, I'm not sure how their unstable genetic makeup would affect the quality of their meat.

Also, I remembered another source of canon clues as to what Pokémon are consumed for meat: the ingredients in SwSh and SV. The most telling are SV's pork products (Bacon, Ham, Prosciutto, and probably Sausage and Herbed Sausage), again suggesting the Swinub and/or Lechonk lines; what is presumably beef in both SwSh's Precooked Burger and SV's Hamburger, again suggesting Tauros and Miltank; SV's Fried Fillet and Smoked Fillet, whose source could be Veluza but could also be any number of other fish Pokémon; and, most blatantly, the Smoke-Poke Tail from SwSh and Klawf Stick from SV, though these are explicitly stated to be harvested from naturally shed body parts without harming the source Pokémon.

I'd also like to point out SwSh's Boiled Egg, which is definitely a Pokémon Egg judging by the size:

Which is not to be confused with the Egg from SV, which is much smaller and thus, if it is a Pokémon Egg, probably comes from a small species, or have somehow been processed into this smaller form:

Spoiler: a Pokémon Egg, at the size they are most consistently depicted as, would not be nearly small enough to fit on a slice of bread like this

There's basically no way of telling what species these eggs come from, though. Also, mayonnaise is usually made with eggs, so they're used for that as well. And, for that matter, eggs are also used in pet food.

 

[ninazrdl]

Are they easily bred, though? Eevee Eggs actually take a pretty long time to hatch (35 cycles)

When I am talking about breeding I am not thinking of breeding like a trainer, but like a farmer. A trainer only carries 6 pokemons around, and in SV, that means you can breed with 6 parents at once. In previous generations you can only breed with 2 parents at once, which is even slower.
If you want to mass produce, 6 is far from enough. I am talking about something like 600 Eevees in a fenced area, eating sandwiches and mating with each other. Of course, none of them shall be "run away" holders. 600 Eevees is probably going to take less space than, say, 600 Mamoswines for example. That means you can have a smaller area, which means less cost. What's better is that unlike Togepi, as soon as they are hatched they can start mating and making eggs. With 600 Eevees you won't mind the time required to hatch the egg...you probably won't keep track with how many eggs there. But you don't need to, as Eevees are hatched as Eevees and you don't want to evolve any of them. So all you have to do is keep the sandwich supply, and pick up a random Eevee when you want some meat, check if that's a boy, if boy, do it. Let them multiply by themselves, they will hatch their own eggs anyway. Remember what the egg guy in previous generations told us? "the pokemon is carrying an egg". The trainers are taking away the egg from the parent pokemon, that's why they have to run around with the egg to hatch them. If we let the egg stay with its parent, it's very likely the parent will hatch the egg by carrying it around.
This farming method is, of course, kind of animal abuse I must say. I am not saying that this IS the meat people eat in pokemon world, I am just saying, if you want to open a pokemon meat farm in pokemon world and you don't care about animal welfare or whatsoever, here are some choices. If you care about welfare, we are going back to Slowpoke tails and Chansey eggs then.

I assume you're talking about the scene in EP016 "Pokémon Shipwreck" where Misty says that Magikarp are "just scales and bones?" That doesn't seem to stop them from being a staple food source for wild Pokémon (with Pidgeotto and Pidgeot being specifically highlighted). There must be something there worth salvaging

Yes. but not necessarily.
1. Many pokemons eat what humans don't.
2. Actually, scales and bones are usable in human food too, but not exactly as meat. You might be able to use a part of a Magikarp like how some people use shrimp shells and heads in real life. but that is still not meat.

Which is not to be confused with the Egg from SV, which is much smaller and thus, if it is a Pokémon Egg, probably comes from a small species, or have somehow been processed into this smaller form:
Spoiler: a Pokémon Egg, at the size they are most consistently depicted as, would not be nearly small enough to fit on a slice of bread like this

There's basically no way of telling what species these eggs come from, though. Also, mayonnaise is usually made with eggs, so they're used for that as well. And, for that matter, eggs are also used in pet food.

Chansey, Blissey, they like to share their eggs, and their eggs are small enough to fit in their pocket. So it is possible to obtain small eggs without hurting any pokemon. The word "egg" here probably means something different from a pokemon egg, it's just something Chanseys produce. I mean...human females have "egg" too, but that is not exactly like our daily English "egg". Maybe it's something like that.